Activists win Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to end sexual violence in war
"OSLO, Norway — The Nobel Peace Prize on Friday was awarded to a Congolese doctor and a Yazidi former captive of the Islamic State group for their work to highlight and eliminate the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad "have made a crucial contribution to focusing attention on, and combating, such war crimes," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its announcement."AP, October 5, 2018

Rape As an Act of Genocide: From Rwanda to Iraq
"The governments of Rwanda and Iraq have agreed to work together to fight rape as a weapon of genocide, noting disturbing similarities between sexual violence in Iraq today to the Rwandan genocide twenty years ago.
Just as targeted rape was as much a tool of the Rwandan genocide as the machete, an estimated 3000 Iraqi Yazidis under ISIL's captivity are currently facing acts of genocide and targeted sexual violence, including sexual slavery."http://www.aina.org November 18, 2016

'I told my story face to face with Habré': courageous rape survivors make history
"At night, Chad’s dictator would sit at his desk, smoking and watching as his agents tortured Khadidja Zidane. Hissène Habré did not know Zidane, an illiterate, poor woman. When he had had enough of watching, he would send her away, then have her brought back in the early hours of the morning to rape her.
For three decades, Zidane told no one. For the raped, tortured and starved women lucky enough to get out of Habré’s secret jails alive, the guards had a very effective way of ensuring their silence: they threatened to bring them back."www.theguardian.com September 18, 2016

International court convicts former Congolese VP Jean-Pierre Bemba for commanding militia to murder, rape and pillage
" The International Criminal Court convicted a former Congolese vice president Monday of murder, rape and pillage for commanding troops who committed widespread atrocities in the Central African Republic in 2002-2003.
The conviction of Jean-Pierre Bemba marked the first time the court has convicted a suspect based on his role as a military commander. It also was the court's first judgment focusing on a brutal campaign of rape by troops in an armed conflict."THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rape as a Weapon of War
"The laws of war prohibit the use of all weapons or tactics of warfare that cause superfluous injury, unnecessary suffering, or violate "principles of humanity and the dictates of public conscience." Rape is a prohibited weapon or tactic of war under the criteria set by the laws of war. Yet, despite the endemic use of rape as a weapon, no state has ever been held accountable for the use of rape as a prohibited weapon of war."http://www.globaljusticecenter.net

Sexual violence as a weapon of war
"Violence against women, especially rape, has added its own brand of shame to recent wars. From conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Peru to Rwanda, girls and women have been singled out for rape, imprisonment, torture and execution. Rape, identified by psychologists as the most intrusive of traumatic events, has been documented in many armed conflicts including those in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cyprus, Haiti, Liberia, Somalia and Uganda."http://www.unicef.org

Rape: Weapon of war
"Is rape really a matter for the United Nations? The Security Council has answered that question with a resounding yes by voting unanimously for a resolution describing rape as a tactic of war and a threat to international security. But perhaps the more important question is: Will the resolution give teeth to efforts to stem sexual violence against women in conflict situations?"http://www.ohchr.org

Trauma, stigma, face girls, women rescued from Boko Haram
"YOLA, Nigeria (AP)—The taunts wouldn't stop. 'Boko Haram wives,' the schoolgirls were called because they had been briefly held by Nigeria's Islamic extremists before escaping. The teasing was so relentless that some of the Chibok girls left their town and families.
Their plight does not bode well for hundreds of girls and women recently rescued from months of captivity by Boko Haram, including dozens who are pregnant. After enduring captivity by the militants, the females may now face stigma from their communities."Associated Press, May 10, 2015.

UN: More Child Abuse Cases Possible in C. African Republic
"UNITED NATIONS—The United Nations on Friday said 'it is possible, it's horribly possible' that more allegations of sexual abuse of children by French and other soldiers in Central African Republic could come to light as investigations continue."Associated Press, May 01, 2015.

UN report: 2014 marked by extremists' use of rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage
"UNITED NATIONS—Secretary-General Ban Ki–moon said 2014 was marked by harrowing accounts of rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage being used by extremists including the Islamic State group and Boko Haram.
In a report released Monday, the U.N. chief expressed 'grave concern' over sexual violence perpetrated by armed groups, including those promoting extremist ideologies in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, Libya and Yemen.
'The confluence of crises wrought by violent extremism has revealed a shocking trend of sexual violence employed as a tactic of terror by radical groups,' Ban said."Daily News, April 14, 2015.

Former Korean 'comfort women' for U.S. troops sue own government
"The suit comes as an embarrassing distraction for the South Korean government, which has pushed Japan to properly atone for what it says were World War Two atrocities including forcing women, many of them Korean, to serve as sex slaves for its soldiers.
The women claim the South Korean government trained them and worked with pimps to run a sex trade through the 1960s and 1970s for U.S. troops, encouraged women to work as prostitutes and violated their human rights."Reuters Press, July 11, 2014.

Boko Haram: a bloody insurgency, a growing challenge.
"It made headlines again this week with the abduction of more than 100 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. After a fierce gunbattle with soldiers, the militants herded the girls out of bed and onto buses, and sped off. Only a few of the 129 girls have been freed. What exactly is Boko Haram, and why has it turned into a Nigerian synonym for fear and bloodshed?"CNN.com, April 17, 2014

Parents: 234 girls kidnapped from Nigeria school
CHIBOK, Nigeria (AP) "Some 234 girls are missing from the northeast Nigerian school attacked last week by Islamic extremists, significantly more than the 85 reported by education officials, parents told the state governor Monday."Yahoo News, April 21, 2014.

Nigerians hold second day of protests over mass abductions
"Hundreds of protesters marched in the streets of the Nigerian capital on Wednesday, demanding that the government do more to find scores of schoolgirls abducted by armed militants more than two weeks ago"New York Times, April 30, 2014.

Nigeria's Stolen Girls
"The circumstances of the kidnapping, and the military's deception, especially, have exposed a deeply troubling aspect of Nigeria's leadership: when it comes to Boko Haram, the government cannot be trusted."The New Yorker, April 30, 2014.

Boko Haram Claims Responsibility for Schoolgirl Kidnapping
The Islamist militant group Boko Haram claimed responsibility on Monday for the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls during a raid in the village of Chibok in northeast Nigeria last month, the French news agency AFP reported, citing a video it had obtained.Voice of America, May 05, 2014.

Nigerian Girl Describes Kidnap: 26 Still Missing
There were too many gunmen co count, said the girl who escaped. So, even after the students realized the men were Islamist extremists, they obediently sat in the dirt. The men set the school ablaze and herded the girl's group into the backs of three pickup trucks.Time.com, May 05, 2014.

Nigeria Refused Help in Searching for Kidnapped Girls
The president of Nigeria for weeks refused international help to search for more than 300 girls abducted from a school by Islamic extremists, one in a series of missteps that have led to growing international outrage against the government.Associated Press, May 10, 2014.

Boko Haram and the Kidnapping of Chibok Schoolgirls
"Despite an outcry from the international community, social media and civil society, this operation was consistent with Boko Haram's previous militant activities in the Nigeria–Cameroon–Chad–Niger border region and its founder Muhammad Yusuf's non–recognition of colonial–era political boundaries that "cut off Niger and Chad and amalgamated [Borno] with infidels."[3] As Shekau, who is Yusuf's former deputy, said in his May 5 statement, 'we don't know Cameroon or Chad—I don't have a country. Islamiyya is what I have.'[4]"Combatting Terrorism Center, West Point, May 29, 2014.

Nigeria wraps up kidnap investigation with 200 girls still missing
"Submitting the final report, Brigadier General Ibrahim Sabo said 219 girls remained at large, a total virtually unchanged since Boko Haram militants stormed their secondary school in northeast Borno state on April 14 to kidnap them."Reuters Press, June 20, 2014.